Upon increasing the electron density in a quantum wire, the one-dimensional electron system undergoes a transition to a quasi-one-dimensional state. In the absence of interactions between electrons, this corresponds to filling up the second subband of transverse quantization, and there are two gapless excitation modes above the transition. On the other hand, strongly interacting one-dimensional electrons form a Wigner crystal, and the transition corresponds to it splitting into two chains (zigzag crystal). We show that the soft mode driving the transition to the zigzag state is gapped, and only one gapless mode exists above the transition. Furthermore, we establish that in the vicinity of the transition already arbitrarily weak interactions open a gap in the second mode. We then argue that only one gapless mode exists near the transition at any interaction strength.

• Received 7 September 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.126404